Research

SPEAX: Social Policy East Asia eXchange - research, teaching and collaboration

Centre for Mental Health Social Research - based in SPSW, drawing on expertise across the institution

Research dissemination for practice: Making Research Count and Research Events

Two renowned research centres: Social Policy Research Unit and Centre for Housing Policy

Research in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work has been rated as among the best in the country in the last assessment exercise (RAE 2008). We have been placed in the top five of large departments nationally and commended highly for the quality of our work. We have a large and thriving research community, which, with around one hundred staff, forms one of the largest groupings of social researchers in Europe. This includes two internationally renowned research centres: the Social Policy Research Unit and the Centre for Housing Policy.

The Department is also home to the Centre for Mental Health Social Research, launched in 2013, and the Social Policy East Asia Exchange (SPEAX). Both forming collaborative research clusters drawing upon expertise across the institution and beyond. Researchers in the Department also contribute towards the interdisciplinary York Environmental Sustainability Institute.

The Department is also one of seven departments nationwide taking part in the Making Research Count dissemination initiative, which offers staff in Local Authority Social Services, the NHS and voluntary organisations the opportunity to work in partnership with academic colleagues to develop evidence-based social work and social care practice.

We are widely known for our social research methods expertise (both quantitative and qualitative) and for our development of innovative techniques and approaches.

Children and young people

Crime policy and criminal justice

Gender, sexuality and inequality

Social research methods

Communication skills for social work

Employment, pensions and poverty

Health, mental health and disability

Social work services and participation

Comparative and international social policy

Family policy and family support

Housing and welfare policy

Featured research

Estimating the life-time cost of NEET: 16-18 year olds not in Education, Employment or Training - Conducted by academics at the University of York, this research feeds into the wider Audit Commission project 'Against the Odds', looking at the financial, personal and social cost of teenagers who are so-called NEET - not in education, employment or training.

Researching and monitoring adolescence and sexual orientation: Asking the right questions, at the right time [PDF] This research was conducted by Dr E McDermott for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the national body which oversees the development of equality in the UK.